Frank Burton & Anne Geraldine Bryant Collection

Collection Identifier: C.2013-07

Inclusive Dates 1931 - 1967

Abstract This collection of home movies was shot by Chicagoan Frank "Burt" Bryant and document his wife (Anne Geraldine McCabe Bryant), mother (Hilda Jernberg Bryant), children (Peter, Ricard, David and Judith) and their family travels. The Bryant family lived primarily in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, at 1726 W. Jarvis Avenue. All four of the Bryant children attended St. Jerome's Grammar School. The boys attended Loyola Academy for high school, while Judy attended St. Scholastica Academy. These family films include scenes of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, as well as footage of the family's annual summer trip to Eagle Lake, Wisconsin, where the McCabe family owned a cottage.

Burt's mother, Hilda Jerberg, was a widow early in life, and lived with Burt and his family in their Rogers Park home until she remarried in the late 1940s (to Harry Vanzwoll). Burt was one of two heirs to the Bryant Piano Company, which produced upright pianos for honky-tonk bars. Burt invested his fortune in Insull Enterprises, but lost it all during the Wall Street Crash of 1929. At the time of the crash, he owned a building with a bakery on Chicago's South Side. Later, he worked for the Post Office to support his family.

From the 1940s to 1960s, Burt investigated fraud as investigating deputy for the State of Illinois. Burt was a devout member of the Knights of Columbus, part of a Friday night bowling team and an avid golf player.

Before having children, Anne was a Chicago Public School teacher in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. According to her children, Anne was a free-spirited flapper who enjoyed golf, playing bridge, reading and praying daily with her rosary.